story20369.xml

story20369.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2006-09-10

I was teaching English in Japan and had just gotten home from work. It was 10p.m. and the English language news was on, which I watched dutifully every night. I was in my little kitchen cooking my dinner and half-heartedly listening to the news when the broadcasters voices became chaotic. I looked at the tv and noticed two towers that I recognized, but couldn't place.

I stepped into my living area to get a closer look and to see if there were any words written. I will never forget, in the upper right hand corner were the words "New York" written in katakana.

I started to get scared. I turned my dinner off, called an American friend to see if she knew anything more and she didn't. As I was watching, I saw the second plane hit and I freaked out. Here I was thousands of miles away and there was no way for me to get home or communicate. And one of my dear friends was working as a temp in and around Manhatten. I wanted my mom. I was 25 years old and I could only think that I wanted my mom. I wanted to be back in MN with my mom.

I called my friend (in Japan) back, she was from the east coast and we started speculating what was happening. She worked for a different company than I did, so we agreed to call each other back with any further information. I called my friends who lived near me and told them to turn on their tvs. Pretty soon my friends started to trickle into my apartment. As a member of the expatriot community, when one of us hurt, we all hurt. My friends from the UK and NZ and Australia came to sit with me and comfort me. I was in shock. I wanted to go home, to the US. I wanted to be in the US experiencing this with my fellow Americans and here I was living my dream, to teach in Japan, and America had come under attack.

The national network, NHK, continued to broadcast in English until 1am. At that point they switched to broadcasting in Japanese. Now my listening skills were good, but not good enough to follow what the broadcasters were saying. My friends, Sophie and Simon, who lived downtown Kyoto called and told me to take a cab to their house as they had the BBC online and were listening/watching the news that way. I agreed, as my friends had all gone home to go to bed so they could get up for work the next day. I was stressed out because I couldn't get ahold of my friend Elizabeth in New York. I took a cab to their house. Around 4.30am , my time I was able to get through to Elizabeth in Brooklyn. She was alive. I was relieved. We talked for a few minutes and then got off the phone.

We watched the BBC broadcast until 6.30am when I fell asleep. I went to work that day, September 12 and felt so disconnected. That evening, I had a lesson with a woman who had lived through the bombing of Hiroshima. She was 4 years old and could remember what her country experienced at the hands of the Americans. In a way it seemed she was happy we had been attacked. We had a very heated and at times angry discussion that ended with both of us crying and apologizing for things both our countries had done.

What I learned is that we are all human and capable of feeling extreme patriotism when our homeland comes under attack. Yet hatred and animosity does not solve anything and trying to listen to each other and understand where we are all coming from, with our unique perspectives is something to strive towards.